


The Sapphire Staff

by Kingsdaughter613



Series: The Judean Codex [4]
Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, Visions of the Future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:34:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25587559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kingsdaughter613/pseuds/Kingsdaughter613
Summary: The Colonial Rite touches the Staff. Maybe they shouldn't...  A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, particularly when it pertains to the future.
Series: The Judean Codex [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1801978
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	The Sapphire Staff

**The Sapphire Staff**

Shay Cormac holds it first, when he receives it. He sees the one he will pass it to, in a room full of Isu things. (It will be years before he understands how long the wait may be; longer still before he realizes those things were never Isu.)

Haytham Kenway is second, when Shay brings the Staff to him. He sees his Rite fallen at Assassin hands. (Shay’s body is not among them; Haytham erases his Hunter so he never will be. The Grandmaster was always sensible, except with his son.)

Thomas Hickey is next, curiosity driving him. He sees his own death and it drives him to drink. (When it comes, years later, he is almost relieved.)

William Johnson touches the Staff and sees the Native people driven from their lands, walking trails of tears. He swears he will prevent it. (It drives him to desperation and to panic. And then he is dead, and all his fears come to pass.)

Molly Brant holds the Staff with her husband. She sees herself leading a Rite of her own. She tells William the Staff lies. (Then William is dead at Assassin hands and Molly swears her oaths over his bloody ring.)

John Pitcairn lifts the Staff to move it and sees chaos. He watches the colonies become States and splinter over a government too weak. The Staff falls from his hands, and he vows to stop what sees. (He dies trying.)

Joseph Warren picks up the Staff and sees the Constitution; a government that can order itself. He lays the Staff down reverently, awed. He will see this future brought about. (He dies trying to make it so.)

Nathanial Gist touches it next and sees a man writing a strange alphabet. The man is his son, he knows somehow, and he is absurdly proud, though why he cannot say. (The man is Sequoyah and Nathanial will not live to see the syllabary.)

Benjamin Church lifts the Staff and sees a new Nation at war with itself; brother battles brother and hundreds of thousands dead. He swears it will not be. (When the Rite sides with the newly born nation, Benjamin’s loyalty turns to the Crown. The Civil War happens anyway.)

George Barlow goes next, in what has almost become a rite of passage. He watches a massacre and understands, accepting what the future holds. (He stands proudly to meet his fate; he does not expect to survive.)

Arthur Middleton sees a flag above a fort and a song of its glory rings through his soul. He signs the Declaration for the Land of the Free. (He doesn’t see the song written in the War of 1812.)

Henry Middleton laughs when Arthur tells him. He has no time for future dreams.

Nicholas Biddle sees a Navy, greater than any that has ever been. He is determined to play a part in it. (He does.)

John Filson watches a city grow and knows he is responsible. He calls it Losantiville and plans it well. (He never sees it built, but Cincinnati remembers.)

John Jay knows a court, one with the power to determine the shape of the law. He knows he will sit on it. (He does, but it isn’t his. He gives it to John Marshall, who shapes it for the future.)

Matthew Davenport looks at his daughter. He is determined to protect her. (He does, as much as any father can.)

Philip Schuyler watches his daughters accomplish. He will do whatever he must to give them that chance. (They make him proud.)

The Coyote Man sees the face of a man he will kill and vows to seek him wherever he is. (It takes him across the oceans but the man dies in the end.)

George Dorrance knows a Union, and eagerly joins the fight. (He dies before he can see it truly be.)

Edmund Randolph looks upon a divided future, checks and balances falling into disarray. He thinks he can fix that. (He can’t, but he tries anyway and accepts an imperfect future when he fails.)

Edmund Judge sees poisonous weapons beyond any he dreamed. He will create them. (The search takes him far from the Order he once served; he dies long before the World Wars and their chemical weaponry.)

Gillian McCarthy sees a world where a woman can lead. She smiles and puts the Staff down. (And when she faces her brother at last, it is with that future before her.)

George Monro Cormac holds his father’s staff and knows he will kill his brother. He accepts his duty as a Hunter and watches for the day. (When it comes, his twin is dying and the act is one of mercy and George Monro mourns all the years of distrust that could have been so much more.)

Charles Pinckney sees himself helping shape a Nation. He chooses to embrace it. (The Constitutional Convention occurs later than expected, but Charles is there.)

Federico Perez needs no Staff. He already knows the glory of his cause.

Victor Wolcott knows things he cannot understand. He swears he will learn. (His Order will kill him for trying.)

Benjamin Logan sees Kentucky. He doesn’t understand. (He creates the State.)

Daniel Sullivan laughs when asked about the Staff. He has no use for such trinkets.

Jonathan Trumbull watches a new Nation rise to prominence. He will be a part of this glory. (He is, until he isn’t.)

Gerhard von Stantten sees nothing but a pumpkin.

Robert Morris sees himself befriend an Assassin. He knows that will never be. (Haym Salomon proves him wrong.)

Roger Sherman places his signature on four papers. He doesn’t recognize one. (One by one they come and one by one he signs, the only one to sign all four.)

Caleb Strong watches himself act from behind to ensure a new nation. He accepts the role with grace. (He serves it with distinction.)

Solomon Bolden sees a black cross. He knows it will be important, but not why. (It is years before he is chosen to take up his new Grandmaster’s old task.)

Charles Lee sees his mind turned against itself. He laughs bitterly and puts the Staff back down. (It has told him nothing he does not already know.)

Magdalene Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie holds the Staff and knows she will not live to be old. She accepts this; she never expected to. She’ll just have to convince Shay that she is a woman _now_ , not a decade hence. (They have twenty joyous years before her end.)

Alexander Hamilton sees his name in lights; hears it sung out before crowds of hundreds and knows his Nation will know his name. (It takes 200 years for them to remember it.)

* * *

(You’re better off not knowing,” the Grandmaster warns years later.

(“I am not afraid of the future,” the Mentor replies.)

Ratonhnhaké:ton takes the Staff from Shay Cormac and sees his children. The eldest walks his own path and the youngest walks her father’s and his heir, the middle one, betrays them all. He swears it will not happen. (He keeps his heir far from the war and the Creed and the Oaths. It is far too late when he understands that that is what turns her against him.)

**Author's Note:**

> This whole thing began while trying to figure out why Johnson would do something as OOC as start shooting at the Tribes. Then I thought, what if he KNEW what was coming and panicked? And then it occurred to me that the Templars - at least in my 'verse - have access to a PoE that shows the future. And if Johnson touched it... what was stopping everyone else? 
> 
> Note: this isn't the whole of the Colonial Rite. Some of them were not around at the correct times. Maggie actually held the Staff in France, and George Monro Cormac holds it a few years later as does Alexander Hamilton. Everyone else (except Connor, obviously) held it in the US in 1770. Connor holds it in 1794.


End file.
